Friday, July 25, 2014

I
know I’m writing this, but it’s not my experience. Not alone. We all went through it, the 10,000 marching
towards Qalandia on July 25th and the other thousands who couldn’t be
personally there but were spiritually. In addition to the thousands that
marched towards checkpoints all around the West Bank, from Nablus to Hebron to Bethlehem.
Each one of us went through it however they could handle it.

Some
were merely by-standers. Some were the ones carrying the rocks. Some were the
ones passing around the rocks. Some were the ones passing around water bottles.
Some were the flag holders and chanters. Some would use their phones to light
the ground when it went dark to make the rocks more visible and easier to pick
up. Some were holding the cameras. Some were sending little kids back home. Some
were yelling “don’t be scared, keep moving forward”. Some were carrying the
wounded. Some WERE the wounded. And some died.

It
was a demonstration like no other.

It
was called the 48 thousand march to Jerusalem, on the night before the last
Friday in Ramadan designated as “International Jerusalem Day”. Why the specific
number, 48? Because it refers back to 1948 Nakba, and this being a way to
remind the world that the massacre that is happening in Gaza against
Palestinians isn’t the first, many have occurred prior to 1948, during 1948,
and after 1948.

Yes,
the number of protesters didn’t reach 48 thousand, but thousands did show up.

I’ve
been to demonstrations before, not many, but none were like this one. It wasn’t
just the youth or refugees from refugee camps (who are usually the first to
move when any kind of injustice happens). Also it wasn’t just Ramallah.
Palestinians from Jerusalem, different parts of the West Bank, and even
Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (coming from what is now called Israel)
all gathered together at 9 pm in front of al-Am’ari Refugee Camp. Men, women,
youth, and children. It was beautiful.

To
be honest I wasn’t with them there, at al-Am’ari. I was waiting on our balcony
till their march gets closer to our house (it's a 5 minute walking distance from Qalandia Checkpoint) and then I’ll come down to join them.
I was sitting, nervously, waiting for them to show up and finally they did. The
second I could hear their chants coming closer, my heart missed a beat. It was
so loud, so so loud. If this march was in Gaza and they were screaming and
chanting this loudly nobody would even hear the rockets falling.

I
went alone, I didn’t call any of my friends or family members. I knew I didn’t
need to. Not this time. This time no body needed the support, motivation or convincing
of anybody to go, our muscles were moving involuntarily towards the march,
towards Qalandia, towards Jerusalem, with our hearts beating only for Gaza. So I wasn’t alone, I found my family and
friends there. And technically, none of us were strangers to each other
anymore, we were all united.

The
purpose of this demonstration was clear, to get together to pray for Gaza and
afterwards move towards Jerusalem, the same Jerusalem millions of Palestinians
are denied entry to, because they have the “wrong” ID color.

But
it didn’t work out that way.

The
minute the protesters reached the checkpoint the Israeli Occupation Army
started firing live bullets. After some time here, you’ll start recognizing
live ammunition from rubber bullets pretty easily. Things got messy.

This
demonstration had children, old men and women, they can’t be there any longer
and so the demonstrators started acting very quickly. These “easy targets”
should be moved to safety right away. So they started bringing them to the
back, some actually refused. An old man said, “All my grandchildren are
upfront, let me be with them.” One kid, no older than 11 or 12, was practically
begging to stay and his older brother yelled at him whole-heartedly telling him
to go back home to the camp and right away. Some parents even took their kids’
hands, put them way in the back with some safe company and went back upfront.

A
lot of these scenes occurred over and over again, one of the most touching to
me was this one father. He never let go of his daughter’s hand, they were way
in the back and made their way slowly till they’ve reached the front –the most
dangerous place to be- and whenever a sound bomb was sent their way, or a hail
of bullets, he wouldn’t leave his daughter’s hand. It was beautiful. Painful
yes, frightening yes, but something about it made the pain and fear fade away
more and more. Together, they were safe.

I
won’t lie to you, I’m not against a third Intifada, being silent while so many atrocities
and oppression is taking place by our occupiers shouldn’t be even an option.
But, I’m against pointless bloodshed. I’m against going out saying we are here
for martyrdom. I’m against little kids throwing themselves in the front lines
of combat. I’m against chaos, and this is exactly what happened last night. It
was the opposite all of that mentioned just now.

For
the first time ever in a demonstration, people weren’t out there to die. Yes I
admit it, sometimes it seems like we –as Palestinians- have a death wish. Which
nobody should judge, we’re talking about millions of Palestinians with nothing
more to lose, but not last night. No chants of “We die, so Palestine lives”
were chanted, no kids were allowed to be in the front lines, and we weren’t out
there to die, on the contrary. Last night was one hell of a cry saying, “We are
here to stay. We are here because we love life, and we are not backing down”.

Still,
some kids made their way to the front, hundreds were injured with live bullets
that we couldn’t even hear where they came from. And yes, some have died. But
no one can or should or even dare to say it’s because Palestinians take their
lives to be so trifle or insignificant. If anybody did, it’s because they’re
ignorant or blind, which at times I was.

Just
because we were out there burning tires, setting fireworks up, and throwing
rockets as a response for live ammunition and bombs, doesn’t mean we’re
suicidal. There’s this famous saying that I resent so much which states, “To exist
is to resist”. Well no, it’s not enough. We’ve “existed” for a very long time
and it didn’t get us anywhere. The only time we breathed life was when we took
action.

That's
why it's a crime on its own to say that Gazans don't have any desire to live, since "all they do is" refuse temporary cease-fires. Gazans are probably the ones who strive for life the most, after
being deprived from it on daily basis for the past 8 years of three wars and
life under siege. They refuse these either too short cease-fires or
too-permanent pauses because they know they won't end the siege. The only terms
on which Gazans would agree to let this stop, is when they make sure the siege
will be lifted and their freedom will be granted. So they shall never live
under fire and death ever again. That's a deep desire to live, not die.

Again,
yesterday was something of a phenomenon.

The
more they shot bullets the more we moved forward. Who ever got scared would
have someone to calm him\her down. If you got tired or thirsty,
someone would hand you a bottle of water right away. When you couldn’t even see
the ground –at times- to pick up a rock, a mother would come with her phone to
light the path for you, while calmly saying to you “Here habibty, God bless you”.
If you couldn’t find any more rocks, someone would have more rocks ready for
you. And people stuck together. Even
when a lot were injured, you’d still have someone to take care of you and work
hard on not letting you lose your soul just yet. And most importantly, when someone would get
too carried away, someone will calmly remind them, “We’re not here to die, we’re
here to pass through, we’re here to cross the checkpoint”.

And
for the first time, this was the closer I’ve gotten to Israeli bullets. Two
young men were hit by live ammunition right next to me, and one was shot on the
roof with a sniper’s bullet right above me. People came rushing to them,
carrying them to get them to the paramedics, and they were screaming in pain.
The sound of their wailing still hasn’t left my mind.

But
still, in amidst of the bullets hail and sound bombs never have I felt safer.
The smell of tear-gas canisters never smelled more heavenly, because I wasn’t
out there alone, and this wasn’t about me. The second this notion sinks in,
nothing else matters and nothing else could stand in the way. I could finally
understand why these guys hurling at the IOF with rocks always seem so
fearless, it’s because they are.

It’s
true. Yesterday we didn’t bring back the lost lives in Gaza. We didn’t cross
the checkpoint and we didn’t “free Palestine”… but, the spirit that people were
marching down the checkpoint with was like no other. This is not an Intifada,
not yet. A third Intifada will arise eventually, and it won’t be bloodshed because
we’re out there with nothing to lose. It’ll be bloodshed ONLY because of the
bullets of scared 20-something soldiers who were much more afraid of the
Palestinians with the rocks, than these Palestinians were of their bullets.

If
you’ll ask the humble me, Israel is witnessing a new generation of Palestinians.
Yes, ever since we were subjects to Zionist and Israeli occupation, we were
fearless. But it always felt that we were fighting back to prove something to
the world. That we’re humans, we’re victims, we’re under occupation, “come
precious world and save us” … and we were always waiting for a response back, something to stop this oppression, but not this time. This time it’s for us. We’re
done waiting for an audience, and we’re
done waiting for a silent International Community that instead of condemning
the Colonization and Occupation by Israel
of Palestine and stopping the war crimes, are doing nothing but lingering it time after time after time.

As
Rafeef Ziadah has perfectly put it, “and let me just tell you, there’s nothing
your UN Resolutions have ever done about this.” So when people here start taking matters on
their own, please just do the same as you always do, spare us your “condemnation
reports”, stand on the sidelines, and let us finish our business of fulfilling
our Freedom. We don’t need any laws or statements to make our fight for freedom
legitimate, we already know that, it’s time you realize this as well. You either
join this march for freedom, or withdraw from this arena all together.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

It’s been above 10 days since Israel started its military operation
(massacre) over Gaza, so far – and keep in mind this massacre is still going
and the numbers of murdered people will only keep increasing- there are 220
dead Gazans bombarded by Israeli –paid by U.S. taxes- missiles with over 1623
injured, and still counting. While at the same time there is one dead Israeli
who was volunteering for the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) in addition to
several injuries by Qassam’s missiles.

In this small nothing of an article, I’ll try not to be
emotional as much as possible. I won’t plead for your inner human to act and do
something, I hate this method anyway. I think it’s pathetic if you’ll ask me,
to only pull people to your cause based on emotions and heart-breaking images
of bombarded house, decapitated children, and bloody burnt bodies. Because it
doesn’t really do anything, people will get heart-broken, pray to a God who
never does anything, and move on.

I’d rather we deal with facts, real actions happening on real
ground, with analysis, and sometimes with numbers. Because humanity no longer
exists to me, it’s circumstantial; it’s an invented term that we convinced
ourselves of and only use it when we want to, not when it demands us to. I
don’t believe in it, so I’ll try to pull away from this so-called humanity as
much as possible.

In these past 10 days of hell a lot has been going on, other
than the act of murder of innocent people. Yes we were heart-broken, yes we had
a lot of sleepless nights doing nothing but crying and wailing over the news of
hearing that a an entire family of relatives and loved ones, of 18 members,
were murdered all at once leaving children behind with nothing but the occupied
sky to look after them, and then repeated all over again when another family is
erased. Boo hoo right? How awful it is for us, you know the ones who DON’T have
missiles bombing their houses on daily and hourly basis? But never mind. Again
this is not the point here, I promise I won’t let my inner-invented-human come
up again.

In these past 10 days I tried to keep as much track as
possible of media worldwide covering this so-called conflict between Hamas and Israel,
and the results that I –among many others- have reached are beyond
comprehensible. That’s on one hand, on the other hand the Israeli logic
continues to amaze me with the bullshit it feeds people locally and worldwide,
and how terrifying it is that people actually believe it!

Among the bullshit that the media –filled with Israeli
propaganda- is telling people is that A) Hamas has waged this war, and they’re
a terrorist organization using their citizens as human shields to protect their
missile launchers and do their dirty work. B) It is not a massacre; it is a conflict
between two even sides, and after all Israel IS fighting for a righteous cause:
annihilating terrorism. C) Regardless of the situation, the “IDF” are the most
moral army in the world where they warn their victims before bombing the hell
out of them.

I could write pages and pages, if not books, on how the media
is blinded and blinding its receivers of this news and I could refute it, but
Jon Stewart with his satirical comedy has done a very good job summing it up in 3 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VheYOMyjTg0

But still I have several remarks on the topic, if you'll tolerate me.

As to the so-called definite fact that Hamas “waged this
war”, let me remind you that Netanyahu accused Hamas of being the culprit behind the murder of the three settlers in
Hebron a couple of weeks back, and he promised that they would pay. And he kept
his promise by immediately bombing Gaza with rockets.

Then you’d always have the word “terrorist” connected to
Hamas, because they fire rockets at innocent Israeli citizens. And every time I
hear this I find myself wondering, what if there was a Palestinian country and
Hamas militants were the “official” army of this country. You know they have
the suits, the different levels of commands, commanders, lieutenants , and generals , their own slogans, and Army’s spokesperson...etc. Will that make it okay? Will they stop being terrorists? Because if you’ll ask me, the IDF is one of the biggest terrorist organizations
on the planet, the only difference is the fancy suits and huge pay-checks they
get over Palestinian dead bodies. In other words, the IDF is more “legal” and
“official” than Hamas, and Hamas militants don’t have a "state" to protect like
the IDF. They merely have a nation to protect, over 1.7 million Gazans who have been
living in an open-air prison for the past 8 years, but still. They don’t have a
"state", so “technically” they’re not “legitimate”.

And then to back up the “definite” fact mentioned above, you’ll
keep hearing this phrase over and over again on the news: “Hamas use their
citizens as human shields”, this has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever
heard. How are they using them as human shields? Was it by hiding
rocket-launchers in their citizens’ houses, mosques, and hospitals? If that’s
the case, how come no militants or their weaponry were found among these
citizens’ burnt bodies or their houses’ ruins? Where are these dangerously
armed Hamas militants? Even the Israeli media can’t confirm that they’ve
actually hit a Hamas target and succeeded.

Now the argument made above will only make sense if you’re a
sick psychopath that needs a mental hospital immediately. Because if you think
for one second, that it is okay or acceptable or necessary to kill an entire
family in order to get rid of one threat –with no clear evidence- then I’m
telling you, from the deepest place in my heart, go lock yourself somewhere and
never come out ever again and punish yourself by banging your head to the wall
for the rest of your life.

I understand war is chaotic, messy, and ugly. But what’s happening
in Gaza is not a war, it is genocide, a new holocaust that’s happening on daily
basis and the entire world is justifying it as “necessary” to stop “terrorism”.
I don’t know what’s more horrifying, how innocent lives are easily lost in Gaza
or how it’s accepted globally by people as something “required” and “needed” to
happen in order to establish “world peace”. Well, I’m sorry to break it for you
people, blood and peace don’t really mix well together. If it’s bloody, it’s
not peace, it is murder.

Still, regardless of all that has been mentioned above, the
IDF still consider themselves to be the most moral army in the world, and this
is their proof:

You would immediately notice how disgusting it is, and how
this army actually justifies the murder of over 200 innocent people. How? By
pretending it never happened. They actually convince themselves that they are
targeting empty houses, that by sending “warning rockets” (that also does tons of
damage on its own before the “real” rockets hit) they are actually saving
lives, and that by sending warnings or calling Gazans to evacuate they are
giving them a chance to run for their life.

Are they really this blind and this stupid? Or is it just a
method to convince themselves that they are merely “humans” defending their
holy Israel? Or do they care in the first place if their targets were actually
Hamas militants or innocent people? Because also, according to the Israeli
logic, these citizens are protecting Hamas militants and hence they are
culprits that are helping a terrorist organization, and therefore why shouldn’t
they die as well?

If this is the army being moral, then now I believe morality
is also an invented concept that we use as we desire, or as people in power
desire.

I know I promised not to play the “we’re all humans” card,
but I can’t help it.

Yesterday four kids –with the oldest being 11- were bombed by
an Israeli missile while playing soccer on the beach. How did the Israelis
receive this “irrelevant piece of news”? As if it never happened, or as if it’s
expected to happen, or blamed Palestinians themselves for it. How dare these
stupid Palestinians send their kids out to play on the beach, it is war!!! And
so what if four have died, the Israelis had three abducted and murdered, so
these four kids aren’t better than the three murdered settlers.

Now with this kind of logic, from the Israeli military to the
Israeli citizens to the world media and countries, don’t come and lecture me
about “moralities”, “two-sides“ bullshit, and “why can’t we all be humans” nonsense.
When the three Israeli settlers went missing, the entire world knew what they
looked like, how old they were, what their names were and their favorite
hobbies. But when over 220 were bombed to death, the world seemed to let it
slip through. No faces, no names, no hobbies … they are nothing. They are
numbers. They are not even humans. They are the ones who brought it upon
themselves for protecting Hamas missiles, because you know … Palestinian
11-year-old kids are miniature-adults and are supposed to be held responsible for
Hamas’s actions and so it’s okay to bomb the hell out of them. They’re nothing
but collateral damage.

And then again, the media would still say the Gazans are
warned, they have time to evacuate, why won’t they go anywhere safe? Why are
there no shelters?

Well maybe if Gaza
wasn’t bombed every two years, and maybe if construction materials were allowed
in, and maybe if there was infrastructure in the first place, maybe then Gazans
will be able to have shelters. But other than that, Gaza is not just the
biggest open-air prison on planet earth anymore; it’s the biggest cemetery as
well.

And as much as I’d love it if they can actually “swim for
it”, as Jon Stewart has indicated in his comic satire of the situation, he
forgot a tiny small detail. The sea is also controlled by the Israelis, so
scratch that off the list of the possibilities to escape. There is no escape.

Looking back on this past
month alone, and for a second here I’ll forget about decades of pain and
oppression, from the kidnapping of the three “human” settlers, to their murder,
to the kidnapping of Muhammad Abu Khdeir and burning him to death, to the
massacre of Gazans for the past 10 days … I find myself resenting people in
general more and more. I resent it when I’m scrolling down facebook newsfeed to
have someone celebrating their birthday among two posts of how four kids in
Gaza were bombed while playing on the beach, and how a hospital for the
handicapped was bombed. I can’t tolerate “happy” and “relieved” at the moment.
Every time I laugh at something, or drink my favorite coffee, or have the luxury
to read my books calmly and comfortably, I feel guilty and I resent myself.

At least it started like
this, me resenting myself and then it kept growing and growing. Then I started resenting happy people, and afterwards it grew some more. Now more than ever I resent those who
die peacefully, I don’t want to know about an 86 year-old man who died peacefully
in the arms of his family and loved ones.
I don’t want to know about some heroic woman who lost her battle against
cancer and was able to say goodbye to every single one of her loved ones. I
resent them. Why do they get a chance to say goodbye? Why do they get to have some
kind of a safe lifetime with their loved ones while kids and innocent people
are being bombed to death?

“Don’t be so cruel” was what
my friend from Gaza has told me when I confined to her my resentment of people
with ordinary lives. The girl who is right under the wing of death on daily
basis is telling me to not be so cruel. Then she added, “Don’t let the war
take away your humanity from you, it has already taken too many humans”.

But well, I had to
disappoint her, I had already lost my humanity. I admit it, I’m no longer the sympathetic,
equal-rights advocate (wanna-be), and humanitarian that I was once considered
to be. I lost that segment, but then again the world isn’t any better.

Actually, for once in human
history we are all equal. We are all bystanders to massacres committed against
innocent people on daily basis, bystanders to massacres in Syria, in Gaza, in
Iraq, in different parts of Africa, in Ukrain … etc.

So maybe the Palestinian
media and Pro-Palestine activists should stop begging and pleading people
around the world to “wake up”, and stop screaming at them with “where’s your humanity”
while carrying images of disfigured bodies of little kids who were bombed to
death. If anything at the moment, it’s only pointless and inhumane.

And since we’re all inhuman
in this together, it won’t make a difference anyway.

This portrait is by Mohammad Qaraqe': a 13-year-old young artist who lives in gaza.

Monday, July 7, 2014

We
had our Ramadan Iftar meal at my grandmother’s house in Beit Hanina yesterday–
an East Jerusalem neighborhood – and after we were done we drank some teaand watched some
Ramadan TV series and then it was time to leave.

I’ve
started reading a book called “The Book Thief” during my last semester at
university, but stopped because I got too caught up on my studying, and only
recently I resumed it. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a Holocaust
book that is narrated by death itself, so it gives us quiet an extraordinary
perspective on the whole “event”. It was
painful to read, too many deaths, too much inhumanity and degradation of human
life, and too much hatred and loathing towards humans. Not far from the
situation we’re in today.

But
reading that book while witnessing and living the recent events of the brutal
murder of Muhammad Abu Khdier –after he was burnt alive by Israeli settlers-
and the series of clashes that happened afterwards, made the book a whole lot
harder to read and finish than it already was. But I had to get it over with.

I
finished the last few pages, filled with so much death like the rest of the
book, while we were in our car heading back to our house. My mother decided to
try and go through Shu’fat – Muhammad’s hometown and where there have been
clashes since the day he was murdered and it has been completely closed
by the IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces)- in order to get at least a glimpse of
what has been going on for the past few, but very long, days.

When
we got to the entrance, like the rest of people there, we stopped the car
automatically. A group of people, over 20 or 30, were standing at the entrance
merely watching and observing alongside us the passengers safely sitting in our
cars. We only watched.

From
afar, we could see lights in the sky moving back and forth with banging sounds
and burnt smells filling the air. They were a range of sound-bombs and light-bombs,
in addition to bullets and gas canisters that we could clearly smell. But that was
all there was to it, us watching from a distance.

The
sad part was, while the clashes were happening; only three soldiers were
guarding the entrance.

Three.

1,2, and 3.

Which
means, if only ten of us stood up to
them, picked up our rocks and used them we would be able to at least stop them
from “guarding” the entrance and we’d be able to go in to support the mourning
family of Abu Khdeir, but we didn’t.

You
want to call that violence or unnecessary set of actions or terrorist act or
whatever it is they call it these days, be my guest. For once I’d welcome such naming, because for the first time it was clear to me. “Peaceful” actions are
not the answer, not anymore. Not when there are young kids being tortured and
burnt to death.

My
stomach used to cringe and my throat would burn every time I hear a little 13
year old kid on TV saying he’s joining the clashes because he wants to die for
freedom, for Palestine, and that they’re here so they’d become martyrs, just
like Muhammad. But if anything, these little kids know more about life than we
do.

It’s
been almost 70 years since the Holocaust has happened, and nothing’s has
changed. Humanity has learnt nothing.

Proof:
the same people who were subjected to being burnt alive based on their
ethnicity and religion committed the same monstrous crime based on the same
reasons towards other people.

The
estimated number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust varied but settled on almost
6 million human beings. How many more do we need to learn our lesson? Some more
thousands? Some more millions?

Done.
Then what? Nothing.

And
that’s the result these 13-year-old kids yearning to die have reached, and they’re
right. We’re on this constant struggle to humanize ourselves, to portray
ourselves in certain images and roles, as heroes, as powerful mothers, as
revolutionists, and most importantly as humans. And how do we do that? By dying.
The only way for a Palestinian to look human is to look and be dead, and these
little kids –whether knowingly or not- know this and implement it on daily
bases.

Because
other than that, they’re not really living anyway. On the “normal daily” life,
these kids were always subjected to death or detention by Israeli forces, the
brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir was what made this fact more subtle and
visible to them and to us.

On
daily bases kids in Gaza are subjected to random Rocket Raids over their
houses. I have a friend there that I know I should check upon after every raid
but it freaks the hell out of me to do so. What if I don’t get a response? And what
if I do but someone she knows is missing? And for how long will she handle it?
She’s survived two wars, two massacres, how will I or she know if she’ll
survive the third?

And
my heart died a hundred times just writing these words that I’m afraid after I’ve
uttered them it might make room for them to become true, but not saying them
out loud won’t make the fear of them coming true any less.

All
of these murders with the smell of death everywhere prove how lifeless the
situation is already, and it calls us to at least pick up our rocks. And if
death was the inevitable then so be it, because these rocks will only bring us
closer to the fact we’ve been running from ever since we were born anyway. That
life under occupation isn’t life. It’s barely surviving and surviving isn’t
living. Resisting, on the other hand, is. Fighting back, picking up the rock
is.

The
entire ride back home, after finishing “The Book Thief” and measuring down the weight
of its words and clarity of the world that it has provided, all I was left with
was the repetition of these words over and over and over again in my head; “Why
didn’t I pick up those rocks?”

But
I’m a coward. I hide behind my words, but deep down I know – or at least hope-
this cowardice won’t last long and there will be a time when words won’t be
enough for me anymore. When words won’t save my life like they did for “the
book thief”, but they’ll be the reason I’ll be set free.

Till
then, the repeated desire won’t leave my mind of the fact that I should have
picked up that rock. Because to exist is not to resist, but to take action is.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

This morning we all woke up to news’ headline “Palestinian teenabducted, killed in suspected revenge attack”, where the 16-year-old Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir
was found dead, torched, in a forest in Jerusalem. All the analysis regarding
this murder centers around the same concept, it was the settlers “revenge” for their
three killed sons. Especially since after yesterday there were a lot of calls
by Israelis to “kill the Arabs” and “Death to the Arabs”, and hence we got a
hint about their future lynching operations.

So we can call what’s happened a kidnap
and murder, or a hideous crime, an act of merciless killing, but never “revenge”.
Revenge against what exactly? The three dead settlers? What about the fact that
1 Palestinian has been killed every three days since 2000 – not mentioning the
thousands before this time period? Or the fact that only since the “abduction”
of the settlers was announced 566 Palestinians were detained –abducted- by
Israeli Occupation Forces, where over 2100 houses were searched, and by
searched I mean flipped upside down and sabotaged. In addition to 10
Palestinians killed, and over a 100 Palestinians were sentenced to indefinite administrative
detention. So again, what revenge and against whom exactly?

What do Israelis expect exactly of us?
Sometimes it might feel that we got used to all the humiliation we’ve been
living under for all of our lives, from the “hellpoints” to demolishing houses
for no definite reason every now and then, to “abducting” our friends and
neighbors – and for your information, there’s over 190 abducted Palestinian
kids in Israeli prisons- and throwing them in Israeli prisons for months and
months or years or even life-sentences. Or killing Palestinians every now and
then for the sake of the Most Moral Army in the World’s practice and training.
Yes, sometimes it might seem like we’re used to it. Yet other times, real
times, we’re never used to it and never will be. And actions will be taken.

Again, what do they expect? For us
to hug them while kidnapping our people? Or to give them a glass water for all
the hard work they’re doing while demolishing one of our houses? Or maybe, a
Palestinian mother should distribute roses to the soldiers who killed her son?
Or maybe, since they stand for hours and hours on their “hellpoints” humiliating
us, we should bring them ice cream and umbrellas to make this heat a little
less of hell to them.

But that’s not going to happen, you
treat people like shit, you kill them and smash their lives as if they were
nothing, there’s going to be a reaction in return. And it’s not going to be a friendly
one.

So the kidnapping of the settlers
was nothing but a reaction to years and years of oppression, humiliation and
murder. I’m not saying this is okay, I’m saying –truly- what the heck do
Israelis expect? If anything when their sons were kidnapped, it should’ve been
their wake-up call to realize that what they’re doing has consequences, ugly-horrendous-hideous
consequences. But what do they do in return? Call for the “Death of Arabs”, who
they’re already killing! And what does their government do? Blow up the houses
of the “suspected” kidnapers, that till this moment it’s not determined if it
were them or not.

We’re living in a world where the
truth doesn’t exist, where humanity is only determined by those in power and
denied for those living under oppression and tyranny by those in power. Where
when someone is suspected of a kidnap and murder, the only action to be taken
was bombing their houses, with hundreds of house arrests all around Palestine
from Jenin to Nablus to Ramallah, to Jerusalem, and where Gaza is being bombed
for someone they suspect he might’ve done the kidnapping in Hebron. And the
only global response that we got was the condemnation of the kidnapping, yet no
conviction of what has preceded the kidnapping or of what has followed.

A clearer example to show that humanity is only a concept related to
those in power,is that the suspects’ of the kidnapping of the Israeli settlers
had their houses bombed and their family members arrested. But I’m pretty sure,
no one is going to blow up the house of the settlers who kidnapped and murdered
Muhammad Hussein Abu Khdeir or
arrest their family members.

In the end, it wasn’t revenge on the
settlers’ part, and the kidnapping of the three settlers was merely a cry to wake
these Israelis up that was simply hushed down and eliminated and turned around,
where three “precious human” lives were lost, and the loss of Muhammad’s life
was merely “revenge” that somehow needed to be taken.

I just wish we'd reach a point where I won't have to post one more picture of a dead kid, too early to forcefully leave this life.